Your letter of the 20 March was delivered me on the 4th of this month whilst I was deeply engaged in packing up and moving my furniture from Walnut Farm to give up the place agreeable to contract to the person who is to live there this year, which is one reason why I have not sent you an answer before now, altho' that should not have prevented me if I had not conceived the answer rendered unnecessary in consequence of a letter my Mother wrote you from Haywood, which you have doubtless got long before now— When my Mother got to Haywood on her way from Richmond, she found our Sister Milly in so low a State of health that she could not leave her, and they never got to my house until the 21st or 22d of March, some days after which she told me she had unalterably determined not to Sell Bushfield, and had, previous to leaving Haywood, written you very fully & candidly on that subject— I do not know what could have induced her to have changed her former determenation, unless it was her apprehensions respecting my sisters health— Had my Mother wished to Sell Bushfield, your offer was certainly a generous one, and would have met the approbation of all her friends I presume— My Mother's Scheme now Seems to be, to continue her hands at Bushfield, and carry on the plantation as formerly— To purchase Mr Lee's Lots in Dumfries, and move a part of her furniture there, which, I think, can not be carried into effect without involving her disagreeably in debt— I am really afraid this sudden and unexpected change, will derange some of your schemes, and put you to much inconvenience— If you still wish to have the Bushfield land surveyed, and to know the quantity of fruit Trees there, let me know, and I will attend to both as soon as I return from the back Country, where I intend to go in a few days to attend the Surveying of the Land I bought of Chas Lee in Fairfax, and may probably be obliged to spend a few day in Berkeley about some business there seems to require my attention— I have not sold Walnut Farm yet, and expecting to Sell it, I neglected to rent it in due time, so that I am obliged now to lend the place to a family merely to take care of the houses— Could I sell that place, it would enable me to comply with my contract for the land I bought, and to build comfortable houses for my family, which they will long want unless I can Sell that or Some other property— We now flatter ourselves that, some time this year, we shall have it in our power to pay you and my sister the visit which it is our duty & earnest wish to pay— We send our best love to you & her. I am yr brother & friend